April 1 (UPI) — Microsoft is separating its MS Teams collaboration app from the rest of its MS Office and Office 365 software outside of Europe, the tech giant confirmed Monday.
The corporation, based in Washington state, is extending an approach first adopted last year within the European Economic Area and Switzerland, Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft announced last August it would unbundle Teams from MS 365 and Office 365 at the behest of regulators as the European Union looked into whether or not the company was violating antitrust laws in the EEA and Switzerland.
The European changes came into effect last October.
Monday’s announcement extends that approach across the rest of the world. The EEA already includes Iceland and Norway.
As is already the case in Europe, Teams will remain available as a standalone service.
“Customers who are currently subscribed to any of the suites involved will have new options,” the company said in the statement.
“They can continue to use, renew, upgrade, and add seats to their current plans as usual. Or, if they wish to switch to the new lineup, they can do so on their contract anniversary or renewal.”
New subscribers will need to purchase either Microsoft 365 or Office 365 before separately adding Teams.
Previously, the company did not allow customers to buy either business suite without Teams at a lower price than suites already containing the popular business messaging and video conference tool. That led regulators to accuse the company of engaging in monopolistic practices.
The European Commission eventually opened a formal investigation regarding Microsoft’s bundling.
“We will continue to cooperate with the commission and remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns,” Microsoft said at the time.
The company on Monday did not elaborate further on the reason behind the latest set of changes, outside of a brief sentence in the question section of its statement.
“These changes are intended to realign our global subscription structure following changes made in Europe in 2023,” Microsoft said, referring customers to its 2023 statement on changes initially made in Europe.
